Flowers in her Hair
by fallen for your eyes
Summary: She hates him and his stupid mouth that kissed Alice last week, and she hates him because he's holding the book she needs, but mostly she hates him because when she kisses him, he tastes like tea and biscuits and chocolate, and his hands know exactly where to fall as she quite literally jumps him.


There are fairy lights in her hair.

Not really, James notices as she walks past him, her hand linked with some 7th year Ravenclaw whose name he can't be bothered to remember.

He realizes that it's the reflection off of his glasses, but Lily Evans looks even better with fairy lights in her hair.

She is, however, actually wearing a flower crown of lilies and daisies and he wants to kiss her, but she is holding hands with that bloke and she isn't speaking to him, so instead he takes another shot of fire whiskey and watches Sirius try to woo another girl.

He can't remember what the party is for or why he even agreed to come but he can't leave because Sirius will never find his way back to bed and the last time he was caught out, Gryffindor lost 100 points.

"You know mate, you should just talk to her." Alice Fortescue is tiny. She always seems bigger because of how loud and adventurous she is, but in reality, she is tiny.

"Talk to who?" He turns to her, but she isn't looking at him. Her eyes are trained on Frank Longbottom across the room playing a game of drunk wizard chess.

"Don't be daft Potter. I'm trying to help you here. You guys haven't spoken nearly all year because you finally dragged your head out of your ass, but neither of you are happy."

"Is anyone really happy at 16, Al?" He's avoiding the question. Her eyes sweep around the room and land on him. Her eyes are blue, bluer than he has ever seen and she's a lot closer than he remembered.

"Some people probably are."

He passes her his bottle of fire whiskey. "Have you talked to him?"

Alice laughs. He likes her laugh. It's bright and cheerful, and part of what makes her so much larger than what she is.

"Not in a chance. I'm quite good at giving advice, James, not taking it." She says, and her eyes find their way back to his, and he makes a rash, very bad decision.

He moves closer to her, her too blue eyes only moving to look at his lips. "You should talk to him." he whispers, but he's already closing his eyes and using one hand to scoop her onto his lap. She's so tiny it takes almost no effort at all, and her hands move to cup his face.

"I will eventually." Her nose nudges against his, and he knows it's a terrible, terrible idea, because both of them are in love with someone else, but he's drunk, and she's not pushing him away, so he kisses her.

Alice kisses him back, hard, their teeth almost clashing, her hands messing up his hair even worse, his fingers brushing up under her shirt.

He is in love with Lily Evans, but Alice Fortescue is a really great kisser.

xXx

Lily has never been punched in the gut, but she assumes it would feel like this. James Potter is kissing Alice Fortescue, while she is holding hands with Jeremy Knott.

Jeremy is nice. He gave her a flower crown and got her drinks throughout the party, and he was 17, and handsome and hadn't tried anything fishy, but he isn't James Potter.

Lily hasn't spoken to James in months, but during that time, something had changed. He is still James Potter, loud, brilliant, and utterly ridiculous, but something about him was quieter. He didn't pick on anyone anymore. His pranks are funnier, less harmful.

She had seen him helping a few first years who had gotten lost find their way. Somewhere along the way of them ignoring each other, Lily had fallen in love with him.

But now he is snogging Alice, in the middle of the Common Room, where everyone could see them. Someone drops a glass. Frank Longbottom loses his game of chess. Lily drops Jeremy's hand and pushes her way to the drink table.

"Didn't see that one coming." Mary Macdonald passes her a drink and flicks the flower crown.

"Which one?" Lily downs half the drink in one gulp, her eyes still trained on where James's hands dance along the edge of Alice's skirt.

"You and Knott."

Lily turns to her best friend. "Really?"

"He's not your type Lils. It's like if you suddenly went for Sirius Black, but I think that would be better than Jeremey Knott." She says.

"Jeremy in nothing like Black."

Mary rolls her eyes and points over to the corner where Lily just came from. Jeremey's arm is around another girl, and his lips brush her ears as she blushes.

"But he gave me a flower crown. After he asked me to come to this party with him." Lily tears the thing off her head and stares at it.

"Marlene has one too. She stuffed it in the bottom of her chest, but I found it when I was looking for my shirt. It's nothing to be ashamed off Lily. I just didn't expect it."

The flower crown snaps in her hands as Jeremy's lips touch the other girl in the corner.

Someone cheers. Lily looks up in time to see Alice following James up to the boys' dormitory.

"I didn't see that one either." Mary comments.

Lily downs the rest of her drink and grabs a bottle of fire whiskey before she leaves exits the common room. She stuck between wanting to throw up and wanting to punch James Potter in his stupid handsome face.

She slips into the first closet she finds and locks the door.

She's never speaking to James Potter again.

xXx

They don't have sex.

Instead, they fall onto his bed and he continues to kiss her, until they stop, and reality hits, and they laugh. They laugh until it hurts and then they stay up all night, and talk about the person who they actually like.

Within the week, Alice and Frank are holding hands in the hallway.

Within the week, James still isn't talking to Lily.

He knows he should try, that he should walk up to her and apologize for something, Merlin, for everything, but instead, he stares at her across the library and breaks about 4 quills in 3 days.

"You know Prongs, if you keep staring at her like that she going to burst into flames." Sirius says. Peter snorts and erupts into giggles, causing Lily to glance over at them. She rolls her eyes, and turns back to her work.

"She's angry with you." Remus rolls up his parchment, the first to finish like usual.

"We're not even speaking how can she be mad at me." James throws his head into his hands, and someone shushes him.

"I don't think she meant to tell me, but when we were in charms, she let it out that she's mad at you for kissing Alice."

Peter finishes his essay just in time to fall into laughter again, this time, a bit quieter.

"Why would she be mad at me for kissing Alice when she's with-"

"Jeremey Knott?" Remus raises an eye brow and stuffs the rest of his things into his bag. "Use your brain Prongs." He stands and stretches, earning a few glances from a group of 3rd years a table over. "Come on Pete. I'm starving. I think we deserve a run to the kitchens."

Sirius adds a dramatic period to the end of his paper and jumps up. "A trip to the kitchen sounds fantastic boys. We should leave Prongs here to his misery." He sends James over exaggerated wink and then ushers the others out ahead of them.

He looks at his paper and sighs. He had been so busy watching Lily, he's barely half way done.

A quick glance at his paper and tells him he needs yet another book. When he looks up at Lily's table, she's already gone.

He doesn't have any excuses now.

xXx

She should have been done with the essay hours ago, but James Potter wouldn't stop staring at her, and she's distracted. By his hair, and his mouth, and his friends laughing and chatting and forcing her to look over at them.

As they leave, she gets up to find another book for her charms essay. Most of her outline is finished. She just needs one more book to get all the information correct.

It's been a week since James kissed Alice, and she still hates him. She hates him and his stupid distracting hair and distracting mouth and the way he refuses to speak to her. Almost six years of him nonstop bothering her and when he finally stops, she hates him for not talking to her.

And now, he's distracting her from her homework. He has given her more headaches in the last two weeks than she had had most of her life.

She's so wrapped up in her own thoughts about James Bloody Potter that she walks right into someone, causing them to drop the book in their hands.

"Shit, sorry."

She knows that voice. Her eyes lift up and she's met with the brown eyed gaze of the devil himself and her heart skips in her chest. His cheeks flush as he rushes to pick up the book and straightens up.

"Merlin. Sorry Evans."

Her heart pounds again. It had been nearly four months since he had spoken to her, four months since she had truly heard his voice, not coming from across the classroom or the common room, four months since he had said her name.

His voice had changed, just slightly. It's a little bit deeper, a lot less cocky, and her stomach flutters at the sound of it. Lily hates him, she reminds herself, as her eyes fall to his lips. She hates him, but that doesn't stop her from staring at his stupid perfect mouth, which isn't in some stupid smirk like it always used to be.

It's slightly open, like he doesn't know what to say. His hand comes up and he brushes his hair back and she almost moans, because he's so bloody fit that she wants to rip his clothes off, but they haven't spoken in 4 months, and she doesn't know if he even likes her anymore. The awkward silence stretches out and his gaze drops down to her mouth for a split second, and she has made up her mind.

She hates him and his stupid mouth that kissed Alice last week, and she hates him because he's holding the book she needs, but mostly she hates him because when she kisses him, he tastes like tea and biscuits and chocolate, and his hands know exactly where to fall as she quite literally jumps him.

She hates him because he backs her against the wall, and the book falls from his hands as he cups her thighs to bring her closer to his lips. She hates him because they haven't spoken in four months, but he knows exactly how to kiss her, how to pull on her lower lip as he pulls away and his mouth travels down her neck, and how make her wish that they were talking.

But they aren't.

She hates him because he makes her forget how much she hates him.

Lily forces herself away from him and does the only thing she can think to do in the moment.

She runs away.

xXx

There are about 3 things that James Potter is 100% certain. One, he has the best friends in the entire world. Two, his dad created the bestselling hair potion the world has ever seen, and neither his dad or James have ever or would ever use it. And three, Lily Evans was the best kisser in the entire world, and he would never be able to kiss her again.

She had kissed him. Kissed his senseless in the back of the library, after not talking to him for 4 months, and then ran.

"She ran?" Remus raises a single eyebrow. He's good at that. The single eyebrow raise. James had tried but could never achieve that level of inquiry and slight disapproval.

"Like a bat out of hell. I pretty sure she forgot her essay." James drops his head into his hands. "Am I that bad of a kisser?"

"I don't know mate," Sirius says, collapsing into the seat next to him. "Would you like me to find out?" He puckers up and James pushes him away.

Remus pulls a bar of chocolate out of his robes and passes piece to James. "You know how to solve this?"

"No Remus, I don't, if I did don't you think I would have done it already?"

Remus just grins and leans closer to James. "You have to talk to her."

"Gahhh."

"Preferably before next Friday, because it's a full moon, and if you're dis-"

"I'll be fine, Moony. I just wish you had better advice." James reaches for more chocolate, but Remus moves it out of his reach.

"Talk to her James. She kissed you, not the other way around. There must be something there."

xXx

The instant the words slip from her mouth, Lily regrets it. Choosing Remus to be her divination partner originally seemed like a great idea.

He was smart. And he was funnier in a quiet way, that almost always included sarcastic comments and exaggerated eye rolls.

Lily didn't expect him to be such a good listener. She didn't expect that she would talk to him about things that would require him to be a good listener.

"So you snogged him in the library, and you ran?" He raises a single eye brow over his tea cup, and Lily wants to run again. She can't tell if James already told him. All she really can tell is she's jealous of his single eye brow raising ability.

"Let's pretend I didn't bring it up." She writes something down from the book, and refuses to meet Remus's eyes. She knows the looks he would be giving her. It would be one full of amusement and probably of pride, because she had kissed his best mate and he was equal parts happy for him and laughing at her for her misery.

"Would you like some chocolate, Red?"

She picks her head up at the nickname. Remus Lupin hadn't called her Red in almost two years. He passes her a piece of chocolate and stuffs it back into robes.

"Your face is the color of your hair. The name seemed fitting at the moment."

Professor Trelawney walks by at that moment, and Remus expertly switches their cups with minimal movement. Once she passes, Remus looks at the tea leaves and smiles.

"You know what you should do?"

She nods, but he's still grinning at the tea cup so she smacks his arm, and he grins even bigger.

"According to me and these tea leaves, you should talk to him about it."

Lily groans and pours herself another cup of tea.

xXx

They don't talk.

xXx

There are fairy lights in her hair.

James knows that this time they are real and not a smudge on his glasses, because most of the Gryffindor house has lights in their hair.

Dumbledore created a contest, to see which house could have the most holiday cheer before everyone went home for winter break. Gryffindor had gone all out and won.

Everyone with long hair, including Sirius, braided the fairy lights into them, making the entire table glow. James, Remus, Sirius and Peter snuck out the night before and trimmed the falling branches off of all the trees in the castle and transfigured them into crowns complete with lights and Christmas balls.

So, there are fairy lights in Lily's hair, and James wants to kiss her.

He can't, because they still aren't talking, but with actual lights in her hair, she looks even more beautiful than he thought she would.

"Boys, let's go." Sirius stands up and grabs Peter away from the cake. They had gotten a present for McGonagall, and since they were all leaving in the morning, it was the only time to give it to her.

She smiles at them, her eyes full of pride and love and James wishes he could tell her how much they all love her, but the present will have to do. She almost cries, and she rushes down from the teachers table to give them all hugs.

It's getting late, so students start milling around the tables and saying goodbye to friends. James is the last to give McGonagall a hug, and when he leaves to move back to the table, his friends are already gone. He walks two steps before ramming into someone.

"Sorry!" He grabs the person to steady them, and Lily Evans stares back at him, her eyes wide. He lets go of her and takes a step back, but he is thrown back into her, causing her to grab hold of him so he doesn't fall.

"What in the bloody hell-"

"Mistletoe." The word is almost a whisper coming from Lily's lips. "Enchanted mistletoe."

James sighs and glances around the great hall. His friends are laughing, but actually look surprised. Lily's friends are staring in shock and amusement.

"That wasn't there before, I'm sorry, Lily, if I had known I wouldn't have-"

"You called me Lily." Her smile is shy. It's the first full sentence she has said to him in almost half a year, and he realizes he forgot. He forgot what her voice sounds like when she's not yelling at him, when she's not answering a question in class, when they are just talking, like they used to in 5th year, before everything with Snape happened. When they were becoming friends before he messed it all up.

"Would you rather I called you Evans?"

Her cheeks turn crimson, and James hands start to shake. A piece of her hair falls loose and James decides it's the safest place to look at.

"I'd rather you –"

He tucks the hair behind her ear, and her eyes flutter shut, so he kisses her. It's much different from the last time they kissed. It's soft, sweet, like a snowflake falling onto a cheek.

He pulls back. "Merry Christmas Evans."

What he means to say is 'I love you' but instead he walks back to his friends.

xXx

Lily Evans is in Love with James Potter.

She comes to that conclusion 2 days after Christmas. She makes lists. She talks to herself. She thinks about _the_ kiss at least 7 times a day. The second one. Because somehow, James Potter chastely kissing her under mistletoe makes her palms sweat more than snogging in the library.

So, she loves him, but she doesn't know if they are speaking again. She knows it should be her to talk to him, because she was the one who stopped speaking to him, but she's nervous. Never before in her life had she been nervous to talk to a boy, but here was James Potter, boy wonder, and he had stolen her heart, and apparently her Gryffindor bravery as well.

She wants to punch him, and snog him. She wants to mess up his hair, and kiss him after he wins a Quidditch match.

Lily wants to know his secrets. She wants him to love her too.

"Lily if you don't hurry up we are going to be late!" Petunia says, walking into her room. Petunia is dressed to the nines. Lily is still in her pajamas.

"Hurry up where?"

Petunia's eyes flash with something like hurt, but she sniffs and shakes her head. "You forgot. Too busy thinking about that freak of a school you go to to remember anything about being home"

"What are you talking about Tunie?"

"Don't call me that." Petunia reaches into Lily's closet and throws her a dress. "Dinner, with my boyfriend. Vernon. How could you forget?"

"You didn't invite me." Lily says. Petunia laughs.

"Mom and dad said that we have to bring you. I told you at breakfast. But you never listen to me."

"You never told me!" Lily yells, but Petunia has already walked out of the room.

She wants to cry, because Lily misses her sister. She wants to scream as they pass Severus's dark, cold house, because he's doing bad things, and calling her names, and she hasn't spoken to him in nearly as long as she hasn't spoken to James.

Lily misses her sister, but at dinner, when the Dursely's ask about Lily and where she goes to school, and the lies roll off of Petunia's tongue, talking about how her special sister goes to a school for special students, Lily wants to go back to Hogwarts, and she wants to tell James Potter everything. She wants to tell someone everything.

Lily Evans is sixteen and she realizes, she doesn't fit in with her family anymore. She wants to leave, and she wants to never come back.

xXx

James spends Christmas thinking about Lily Evans lips and helping Sirius cause good havoc at the Potter home.

His mother bakes them cookies and his father teaches them how to dance.

"Pretend he's that flower girl James, lead Sirius around the room, there you go."

Sirius flutters his eyes at James, and he tries to kick him without messing up the dance.

"Her name is Lily, Monty." Mrs. Potter says, walking into the room. She perches herself on Mr. Potter's lap and kisses his forehead.

"Lily Potter, now that's quite the name isn't Mia." The record stops and James jumps away from Sirius and grabs one of the cookies his mother had brought in.

"It's not like that." He says, dropping a kiss on his mom's cheek, before collapsing into the couch next to his dad.

Sirius laughs and pretends to wipe tears from his eyes. "Not like that my a-" He pauses and looks at Mrs. Potter before changing his word. "My bum."

Mr. Potter's eyes sparkle. "Oh, tell us son." He says, directed at Sirius. "Tell us all about it."

"Well for one, they snogged in the library!"

"Sirius." James warns, but his parents are laughing.

"We did that once, didn't we Mia."

"Yes. But I believe it was in the ministry's library. We almost got caught!"

Sirius's eyes sparkle, much like James's dad, and he can't help but feel like he is home, but something is missing.

He knows what's missing, but he doesn't let his mind wander down the path of soft lips and unspoken words. Instead, he listens to his parents tell stories of falling in love and fighting the world, and James let's himself be happy.

xXx

She kisses him in March.

It's a beautiful day, and the Quidditch cup, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, and Lily is two minutes from jumping James Potter because she is in love with him, and James Potter in Quidditch robes in a whole other story.

"Has he spoken to you yet?" Mary asks. Lily rips the croissant she is eating and glares at her friend. Mary shrugs and takes another sip of her juice.

"I mean, the way you are staring at him, I thought maybe you two finally fell into bed with each other, but from that glare," She bops Lily on the nose and continues. "I guess the answer is no."

"Maybe he doesn't want to talk to me. I mean, I attacked him in the library in October, and then we were forced to kiss at Christmas, and…"

"And what?" Mary grabs Lily's arm and pushes her from the table. The Quidditch team had just left. "Let's go. You're going to wish him luck with today's game. I'm going to show Black my bra for incentive to win. And tonight at the party, you are going to tell James Potter you love him and you are going to have beautiful babies."

They burst outside and the boys are only a few feet in front of them.

"Oi Potter!" Mary pushes Lily forward and runs to meet up with Sirius.

She's flustered him. "Hullo, Evans." He pats his hair down and she tries not to maul his lips again.

"Mary wanted to flirt with Sirius." She blurts out, and she hates herself. James opens his mouth, but Lily speaks up again. "Not that I don't want to talk to you, because I do, I really, really do."

James's mouth snaps shut and he stares at the space between them.

"Merlin. I just said that." Her hand covers her mouth and she steps back. "I'm bad at this. Okay. Just – um- Good luck today Potter."

Lily stands on her toes to reach his face, and she goes to kiss his cheek, but something hits her, and she topples, falling straight into James and right into his lips. Lily doesn't get the chance to think about how Mary just hexed her, because she's too busy kissing James Potter's stupid, perfect lips.

"Go win today alright. So we can have a party later, and such." Lily bites her lip and he groans, before kissing her again.

Sirius cheers and jumps on James's back as they run to the stadium, and Lily makes up her mind.

She loves James Potter. And now she's going to do something about it.

xXx

An owl pecks at the window. James groans, but he gets out of bed and opens it, passing the owl a treat before she nibbles his fingers.

"It's to bloody early mate, go back to bed." Sirius stuffs a pillow over his head before James can flip him off.

The letter smells of Lily's and chocolate chip cookies, and James suddenly can't wait two more weeks to go back to Hogwarts. He doesn't want to wait two more weeks to see his girlfriend, and to become the best head boy Hogwarts had ever seen.

He doesn't want to wait two weeks to kiss Lily Evans.

The letter is short, just her rambling about her day and how she got sunburn at the beach. He can tell it's a distraction for her, something to remind her that she didn't imagine this crazy world they live in, something to remind her that she is real.

He can't help the smile that settle on his lips as he writes back to her. He stuffs some flowers from his mom's garden into the letter and sends it back with the owl.

Two more weeks. He almost counts the minutes.

xXx

She turns the flowers he sent her into a flower crown. It's sits on her head when she runs through the wall at Platform 9 ¾'s. It falls off her head when she jumps into his arms. He kisses her and for a second, she can forget, forget about her sister and about the war and about everything else that's going on in the world.

For a second, everything is perfect.

Lily Evans loves James Potter. And James Potter loves her back.


End file.
